Can Medical Marijuana Help People with Hep-C?

There is a growing list of diseases that medical marijuana can help with, and lately many people have been investigating if medical pot can help people suffering from Hepatitis-C. So, what are the details?

First, let’s discuss Hepatitis-C. Hep-C is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects the liver. If left untreated, it can be a fatal disease, slowly eroding the body’s ability to digest food properly. In order to combat Hep-C, you have to take a daily pill regimen to halt the progress of the disease. Unfortunately, these pills can have a large variety of unwanted, and very acute, side effects.

One of the side effects of these pills is extreme nausea, to the point where simply moving around can make your stomach feel like you’re trapped on a cruise ship. In order to deal with this (and to avoid adding more pills into the mix) many doctors are beginning to prescribe medical marijuana thanks to its ability to easily calm your stomach. This continues to be the common use for medical marijuana — to nullify the side effects of a prescription drug without forcing you to take other pharmaceuticals.

In terms of helping with the disease generally, medical marijuana is not particularly useful. While it can dull some of the symptoms, it cannot halt the disease, and is therefore only a supplement to a treatment regimen.

If you have Hep-C and are looking to alleviate some of the side-effects of your medications, talk to your doctor and see about possible medical marijuana options in your area.